Charmed: Darkness Rising
by Narek
Summary: The first demon, return of Chris, what else could be more than that. Note: This is an off shoot of another story that I have written Charmed Timeline.They are both two completed stories but part of the other in a whole. For more information see that stor


Charmed Fanfiction: Memories

**Charmed Fanfiction: Darkness Rising**

The Charmed Ones were working hard as usual, fighting demons here and there. They took out one demon after another with their separate and combined powers. They were stronger together and it had always been that way. However, after they vanquished the spiritual Nexus, they had gotten minutely weaker. The Nexus was neither good nor evil and it lived underneath the Halliwell manor. At least, it did, until Zankou, a very powerful demon had taken it into himself to control it. It was pure power and basically whoever controlled it, absorbed its power. The Halliwell's, having lived in the house for generations, controlled its power. This made them strong, but since they had to vanquish it to kill Zankou, their power was weakened. They just hoped that, that was all that happened because of it. Besides all of that, there was no rest for them no matter how hard they tried for it to be so. They each had their normal lives that they wanted to get back to. Piper Halliwell, the oldest had her husband and two young sons to go home to. Phoebe Halliwell had her column, Ask Phoebe, which she put her heart and soul into and Paige Mathews, the youngest, had her duties as a half witch, half whitelighter to contend with. Despite everything, they managed to come together and vanquish demons as the most powerful force of good, the Charmed Ones.

Since this particular demon was now handled, they each got back to the things they did with their daily lives. The first thing Piper did was to check on her sons who were with her husband Leo.

"How did it go?" he asked as he saw her come in.

"Oh you know, demons come, we vanquish, end of story," she said, "how did things go here?"

"Well, the boys have been fed and had a nap," Leo replied.

"I guess it's play time," she said and baby Wyatt knew those words so he smiled.

That night, as they all slept, it seemed no one slept soundly. They were all having bad dreams, fire and brimstone kind of dreams. Things were in chaos and people were in a panic. The city was in shambles and nothing was good and normal as it should be. Throughout the whole dream sequence, one thing remained constant, one lone figure stood above the chaos. This woman, a demon as it was, stood above all this death and destruction and just laughed, very evilly. Things went from bad to worse and as they did, everyone in the house woke up at the same time, in the same cold sweat wondering what the hell had just happened.

Deep in the Underworld, deeper than any demon could or wanted to go, there was a cavern. In that cavern an ancient evil slept. It was safely tucked away until; upon a stroke of luck, the barrier that kept it sealed weaken. It weakened so much that the power that was behind it could finally use its might and strike out. After time, it was able to break completely free. Black mist came out with all of its power and floated up from the pits.

The demon Sesta sat in her cave, not knowing what to do. Most of the upper level demons had been vanquished by the Charmed Ones, including the Source and Zankou so that now only a few ultimate powers were left. She wanted to be the one on top but she didn't know how that could be possible. First, she didn't have the power or the well known reputation to make a name for herself. That's what was keeping her from ruling the Underworld as she wanted to and that got her very frustrated. She was contemplating this unfortunate circumstance when she noticed an odd hush that came over everything. She looked around and noticed an eerie mist float into her cavern.

"Do you want this power you crave so much," a voice that seemed to come from the mist, said.

"Who are you?" Sesta demanded.

"Someone who can give you all you've ever wanted, if you're strong enough to take the chance," the voice said.

"What would I have to do?" she asked. She was unsure of whether she wanted to do whatever this mist was asking, but she could sense its evil. This evil, whatever it was, was powerful and she liked it.

"Let me into your body; let me make it mine and all the power you seek will be yours," the mist said and whatever it was seemed to be getting to her.

"Yes, I will, do what you have to do," she said and the mist wasted no time in coming at her and entering her body. She cringed a little bit but then, after the mist was fully absorbed into her, she stood up straight. The only difference was that her eyes had turned completely red and a very evil smile crept over her features.

"Finally, the end is near," she said, in a very deep and menacing voice.

The next morning all the Halliwell's were rattled. Apparently, the dreams that they all had were the same. When Piper had woken up, her kids Wyatt and Chris had obviously had a bad dream because they were very upset. After they got the boys settled down, they all met in the living room to discuss what could be the cause of this dream.

"It can't just be us, what if it is the whole magical community?" Paige questioned.

"If it is then we have a major problem coming, I mean the last time there were dreams of fire and brimstone, the Titans were released," Phoebe replied and everyone looked to Paige.

"Yeah, don't remind me, I still remember the fires," she said. As it was, when the Titans were released, Paige had, had the dreams about the past and that led her to find out about the Titans. Now, however, things were different, they were all having it and this unnerved them.

"Okay, we established that this, whatever it is, is a bad thing, but what is it?" Piper asked.

"If I could interject," a voice that they all knew well said. Soon after the voice spoke, the Elder Sandra appeared. No one was really happy to see her, what with their relationship with the Elders being what it was. The Elders had put them through a lot since they had become witches and they had, had enough of it. However, now they had to say, with what they were dealing with, they were a little happy to see her, if only for an explanation. She orbed in and stood before them.

"Do you know what's going on?" Piper asked, in query to her question.

"We too have sensed an approaching darkness, one that we haven't sensed since the beginning of time," Sandra said and that peaked their attention.

"That long huh," Paige said, obviously shocked.

"What do you mean by that?" Piper asked looking blankly at Sandra.

"This evil is pure and unadulterating power, it is like nothing you have faced before," Sandra explained.

"What is it?" Leo asked, but right then, there seemed to be a whoosh of air out of nowhere. It practically took their breath away and when they all recovered, sitting on the arm of one of the chairs in the corner was a woman. They had never seen her before but they knew that she was demon. She had red eyes and very evil aura they could all seem to sense. They all looked to her and she saw them and smiled a sadistic smile.

"Why, me of course," she said in a very inhuman type of voice. Right then, Piper and the others went into battle mode to which this new comer just smiled.

"Don't, let her be," Sandra said and they all looked to her, oddly and a bit taken back.

"The hell I will," Piper said and she tried to blast her, but unlike other demons who would be blown up, it was as if her power wasn't working because nothing happened. There just seemed to be a small punch that didn't faze this woman in the least. She looked at where she was hit and then back to them and laughed.

"Please children, you'd think after a few millennia, you could do better than that, shall I try now?" she said and then she motioned with her arm and they all were blown backwards with a force they had never felt before. Even Sandra was blown backwards and everyone hit the opposite wall. The blast also made a big mess of things around them which just amused the new arrival. As they all tried to recover, she got up and walked toward them. They all could hardly move and so they just looked painfully up at her.

"You know, I'm disappointed, here I thought that the mighty Charmed Ones I heard so much about would have put up a better fight," she said as she sauntered over to them, "not to mention an Elder." When she said that last part, she looked at Sandra who looked at her angrily and when she tried to strike back at her, she threw her away with a fiery vengeance.

"Now, now, that's not nice of you," she said and then she got a very vicious look over her face, "I will rip each of your hearts out and take my pleasure in watching you breathe your last breath." She laughed out loud at that and right then she went straight at the fallen Charmed Ones with a sadistic look on her face. They didn't know what they were going to do but to their great surprise there was a blast from behind her and she was knocked forward. Everyone looked to where the blast had come from and saw, to their shock, a face they had seen before, it was the face of a Destiny Keeper. Actually it was the face of the only Destiny Keeper they had met before and worked with. It was a while ago and they worked with her to retrieve the M cron crystal, which had power over destiny. They had never really gotten along but they were glad to see her now. The evil, however, wasn't glad to see her. After she had recovered, quite quickly, she stared daggers at her.

"You," she seethed and the keeper smiled.

"You should have stayed buried Desdemona," she said back.

"It won't be like last time, Lya, I'm more powerful now," she said.

"Yeah, so are we," Lya replied and right then more keepers came in and she noticed them. A fight then ensued as the Charmed Ones too recovered. This demon, Desdemona, was powerful and managed to hold her own even between all of them although she mainly went after the Destiny Keeper. However, soon, she managed to call in more demons that helped her fight.

"You think that these demons will help you," Lya said.

"They seem to be getting the job done," Desdemona said and they both smirked at each other.

"You forget, you bring in yours, I bring in mine," Lya said and then she blinked and from all sides Destiny Keepers arrived and took on the demons, quite easily. Desdemona then went on and fought Lya while the battle raged around them.

Piper, meanwhile, was busy with a lot of the demons and she took the extra work of protecting Leo and making sure no demons made it upstairs where the kids were. Although, it was getting harder to keep up with all the demons and as could have been predicted, a demon came at her with particular fervor and it managed to telekinetically throw her down. It then saw its opportunity and went for her, but just when Piper expected this to be the end of her; a hand came and stopped the demon from summoning a counterattack. Piper, who had covered her face with her arm, preparing for the attack that didn't come, brought her hand down and looked up to see who had saved her. When she did, she was completely shocked to see a very corporal, Chris, her son. Leo noticed him too and the both of them were shocked into silence. Chris, meanwhile, looked at the demon and shook his head.

"Now, now, that's not nice," he said and then he threw the demon past him and into the air with enormous strength. As the demon flew through the air toward the opposite wall Chris used an energy beam to vanquish him. After that was done he turned back and helped his mother up from the ground.

"Hey," he said, but Piper couldn't speak, she was still in shock.

"Chris, what, how?" Piper said, finally finding her voice.

"Well, it's actually a long story," he replied.

"Chris, fight now, explain later," Lya said, from where she was fighting Desdemona and Chris turned to look at her. They were all jerked back to what was happening in the Manor.

"Right," he said and then he turned back to Piper, "are you okay." Piper nodded and then Chris got right back to the fight, as did Piper. With the amount of keepers that was there, the demons were decimated and when Desdemona saw that things weren't going her way, she stared daggers at Lya.

"Don't think I'm done, far from it," she said and they shared a menacing look before flaming out.

After she was gone, they all surveyed the extensive damage. The Halliwells, however, were all now able to look at Chris and they still didn't know what to think. Lya didn't seem to notice because she had bigger things on her mind.

"Okay, we have a lot of work to do," she said and then she turned to the other keepers, "it's time to divide and conquer, Maven, you go and gather the herbs for the potion and Kia, you gather the others for the gathering." As she ordered, the keepers nodded.

"What are you going to do?" the one called Kia asked.

"I'm going to stay with Chris and help the Charmed Ones so that they can be ready when the time comes, now go," she said and they all left in their keeper way by molecularizing out. Lya then turned to everyone else, but mainly to Sandra.

"Okay Elder, I need you to…." she began but Piper spoke up, interrupting her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, nobody is going to do anything until somebody tells me what my dead son is doing here?" she asked as they all looked to Chris.

"You'd think you'd be happy just to see me," he said in his own boyish manner, but they just looked at him and then at Lya.

"Well, we are, we just want to know how?" Phoebe asked.

"Short version, after I . . . died, I became a destiny keeper, with the good word from an old friend," he said and he smiled at Lya who smirked back.

"Yeah, that is a short version, care to elaborate more?" Piper asked, but Lya interrupted.

"Maybe later, you have the cliff notes version, and that should be enough, because right now, we have bigger fish to fry," she said and they knew she was right. The Charmed Ones still didn't know who this very powerful demon was that just attacked, but whoever she was, she looked like she would be hard to vanquish.

"Okay, you're right, so who is this demon and how can we vanquish her?" Piper asked and that was when things got very serious.

"You know, that's the thing, you can't vanquish her," Chris said.

"Meaning what, is she like the demon Vincarious in the Book of Shadows, unstoppable?" Paige asked.

"Vincarious is nothing compared to her, being as how he came from her, him and every other demon that exists, Desdemona is the first evil, the mother of all demons," Lya replied and they didn't know if they could have been even more shocked after Chris, but they were wrong.

"She's what?" everyone said at once.

"The last time she was free was millennia ago and it took all the power of good including the Destiny Keepers to beat her and then all they could do was contain her," Sandra replied.

"How?" Leo asked.

"They used some of the power of the Nexus," Lya replied and the sisters knew that nothing said from here on out would be good.

"The Nexus?" Piper questioned.

"Yes and when you all vanquished the Nexus it weakened the barrier holding her back enough so that she could break free," Sandra replied. After she said that, Piper turned to her angrily.

"If you knew that, why did you let us vanquish it?" she accused.

"First, we didn't know how much it would weaken the barrier and we didn't know after all these years of encasement that she would have the strength to break out and besides, do you know of any other way you would be able to have defeated Zankou," Sandra said and at the brief mention of Zankou, Chris shifted. It seemed that only Leo noticed as he was the only one still shocked to see his son that he thought was dead. Of course Chris would be uncomfortable of the mention of Zankou, Leo knew of Chris's prior relationship with a different version of Zankou from his timeline. They all listened to Sandra's explanation and knew that she was right even if they didn't want to admit it.

"Okay, all that said, how we get rid of her again, I'm assuming you have a plan, I mean, you seem to," Piper said as she looked at Lya.

"Yes, we do, you see, we have always known since her original rampage that she could get out again and so we planned for that contingency even if we did hope that it would never come," Lya explained and they all listened intently, "our plan involves all of you, you see, Desdemona is more powerful but so are we, with the power of the Charmed Ones and us, along with the Elders, we might have the power to actually be able to vanquish her, for good."

"That's a lofty plan, exactly how does it work?" Phoebe asked.

"Well, we make a very special potion, one which, once drunk, will imbue that person with the ability to hold ultimate power without having to be prepared for it, generationally speaking," Lya replied.

"And with this ultimate power whoever does it will be able to direct that power, basically all the power of good, to vanquish her," Chris replied.

"If it were that easy to vanquish her, why wasn't it done to her back then?" Leo asked.

"Well, first, good wasn't that powerful back then, we had to wait for you, the Charmed Ones to add to the power of good," Lya replied.

"You seem to know a lot about her," Piper said and Lya looked at her.

"I should, I was one of the ones who banished her," she said.

"Wow, you're that old," Paige said.

"Lya was the original Destiny Keeper, created first," Sandra replied and they all waited a few moments to let that information sink in.

"Okay, enough of the back-story, we should start on that potion, Desdemona is nothing if not persistent and if she keeps to her MO, the mortal world isn't safe, she'll go after it and make it a horror show that you don't want to see," Lya replied and they agreed that it was bad and so they decided that it was time to get to work.

Paige and Phoebe were the ones who began working on the potion with some of the keepers who had come back with the ingredients, particularly the one named Maven. Lya, Chris, Leo, Piper and Sandra were in the attic with the Book of Shadows filling themselves in on the demons that Lya said Desdemona would be using.

"Are you sure she'll do this, there are a lot of demons," Piper asked as she flipped through the book.

"That's what she did before and you'd think that she was more inventive but she's not, she cares about dominance and will do whatever she can to obtain it," Lya explained.

"Do you really think this will all work?" Leo asked.

"Hopefully, but we won't be able to do it alone, just like Desdemona, we need reinforcements," Lya said and then she turned to Sandra, "I need you to go to the other Elders, get them ready for what's to come and gather those you will need to help us, now." Sandra listened to her and nodded.

"Okay, just make sure that you are ready when we are," she said.

"You know we will be," Lya replied and then Sandra nodded to everyone before she orbed out. Once she was gone, Piper turned to Lya.

"So the way things work, you have say over the Elders," she said and Lya looked at her.

"Yes, they only have sway over the mortal world whilst we have bigger realms to deal with," she said and Piper nodded. Chris, however, knew what his mother really meant. As Piper smiled at that little revelation, Sandra just looked annoyed.

"Later, Lya wasted no time in turning to Chris.

"Okay, with that stuff happening, I have to go get something that will help us, I need you to stay here and keep things on track," Lya explained and Chris nodded.

"Of course," he said and right then a look passed between them and both Leo and Piper noticed a certain spark between those two that anyone could have noticed. Lya then nodded to Piper and Leo before she whirled out. Chris then turned to his parents.

"So, I'm assuming you have questions," he said and both his parents just looked at him odd and confused, "well, I'm a Destiny Keeper, obviously, and as far as that, I can't really tell you much, for obvious reasons."

"What do you mean?" Piper asked.

"I'm duty bound by the laws of Destiny to basically keep my mouth shut," he said. Piper looked to Leo and by the look on his face she knew that he knew the laws too. As much as Piper loved breaking the rules, she knew that she shouldn't push this, so she let all the questions for Chris drop. Instead, they all focused on the matter at hand.

Once the potion was made, Lya showed back up along with Sandra who told them that the Elders were ready to act. It was good things were coming together because they got word from the news that things were not going very good in the outside world. Evil, apparently, was spreading and so they had to work fast. As things were, there were a few last things they had to do and one of them, the most important thing, was they had to find the vessel for all the power of good.

Desdemona stood before her assembly of demons, warlocks and other forms of evil. They all awaited her words because they all knew who she was.

"My children, it is time for us to stop hiding in the shadows, we have been fighting our war with good in the dark but it is time for us to bring our war to the light and tear it down!" she yelled in her booming voice and all evil cheered. They had been following her order and causing chaos wherever they could but what she was talking about now was complete war up top in the mortal world. It had been millennia since magick had been known in the mortal world ever since Desdemona's last time there. She wanted things to be that way again and she wouldn't stop until it was. However, she knew that she would have to get rid of the Charmed Ones and Lya. She knew their plan and she knew Lya. Because of all this knowledge she was making a small army to go after them and she would lead the charge. It was at that time that she sent her other demons to go start making chaos in the mortal world. It was time magick made its way up while she and the others attacked the Halliwells before they could use the vessel to destroy her.

Everyone at the Manor gathered in the conservatory when they got word that there were demon attacks right out in public. Mortals had no idea how to defend themselves and other forces of good were starting to be spread too thin. They all knew if anything were to be done, it would have to be soon.

"Okay, everything is nearly done, now, who is this vessel we need, is it you Lya?" Piper asked. It was then that Lya seemed to dodge Piper's eyesight and she and Chris seemed to stare at each other as if they were the only ones who knew the answer, which was probably the case. Finally, Lya looked at everyone else.

"No, it's not me, but it is a Destiny Keeper," she said, "due to all of you lending your blood and power to the potion, we now need a link and that is Chris." As she said that, they all looked to him but he must have already known because he didn't look surprised.

"Wait, is it dangerous?" Leo asked. There was another pause which just seemed to signify that it was.

"Like with everything there is a risk," Lya said.

"How big of a risk?" Piper asked, which caused another pause.

"A risk that my soul could be destroyed," Chris said and that caused all of them to gap their mouths a little.

"No, I don't like it, is there another way?" Piper asked.

"There isn't but I'll be with him every step of the way to shield him the best I can, but it has to be him with all you Halliwell's contributing, the best chance we have as a link is Chris with him being both your blood and a Destiny Keeper, there's no other way." With Lya's explanation they had no choice but to accept it, but it didn't mean they had to like it.

"Okay, so, when are we going to do this?" Paige asked.

"The sooner the better, things are getting very bad out there," Sandra interjected.

"Alright, I'm going to need the vial," Chris said as he looked to Piper who had it in her hand. Piper hesitated at first before she held it out to him. However, before he could take it, it was flung out of her hand and clattered on the floor, without breaking. All heads turned towards Desdemona who had been the one to throw it.

"I'm back," she said, smiling evilly and then she looked to Chris, "so, you're the one, I'm surprised, well, I guess that's too bad for you, because now you have to die." Right then, as demons shimmered in everyone attacked one another, taking on those closet to them. Lya went at Desdemona because she had to keep her away from Chris who tried to get to the fallen vial. He first had to get through a lot of demons that stood in his way. They must have known that he was the one Desdemona wanted dead because they tried to get away from those they were fighting such as the Charmed Ones to get to him. They must not know how tough it was going to be to get to him because they seemed unprepared. Chris managed to get to the vial and before he could be attacked again, he drank it. Desdemona saw this and got angry.

"No," she seethed as she blocked a blast from Lya. Chris, after drinking it took a deep breath as a bright light emanated from him for a moment and then faded. He seemed to get stronger and one could tell just by the way he looked. Also as a demon came at him, he gestured towards him and a beam of pure light came out of his hand and ripped through the demon like paper, vanquishing him. Everyone else saw this and were taken a little back but Piper and the others were glad that it had worked. Chris got right up and went at the other demons, taking them down one by one. His main goal was to get to Desdemona who was still fighting Lya. Lya however, saw Chris coming and flung Desdemona away from her so that when she landed and got up, she was facing Chris. They both stood up to their full height right then and faced one another while the other battles were going on around them.

"Do you really think that even with all of your power, you can stop me boy," she said.

"It's not like it's never been done before," Chris replied and Desdemona laughed.

"Yeah, well that was just locking me away, but I'm more powerful now and I'd like to see you try to banish me again, or, as I'm sure you're trying to do, vanquish me."

"With all the power of good behind me I can," he said.

"Even with all that power, good is no match for evil."

"We'll see about that," Chris replied and it was then that they both prepared and attacked. Chris sent out his pure white energy beam and Desdemona sent out her own dark energy beam. They both collided and the air around everyone seemed to energize. Things then started to really go crazy because furniture flew around and it was hard to stay grounded. Both Desdemona and Chris were starting to feel the stress of the power that they were releasing because it shown on their faces. They were both struggling and things didn't seem like they would calm down any time soon. Lya knew that if things kept up like this the Manor would be torn down around them. She thus knew that she had to do something and so she went to Piper and Leo who were fighting side by side with Piper doing her best to protect Leo who seemed to be holding his own with potions. After helping Piper dispatch a demon by her she had to yell over the noise.

"We have to break the connection and give Chris time to absorb more of the energy he's been exposed to," she yelled.

"How do we do that?" Piper yelled.

"You're the strongest of your sisters I need you to blast Desdemona at the same time as I hit her with my power, then I'm going to need Leo to get Chris out of the way, tackle him if you have to." Both Piper and Leo nodded and went with Lya. Piper and Lya each used their powers directly on Desdemona who was so focused on Chris that she didn't see it coming. Right when the blast hit her, Leo took Lya's advice and tackled Chris out of the way. Desdemona flew away from the small explosion that happened when the blasts died down. Weakened, she looked up and knew she couldn't really do much more, not in the state that she was in.

"Alright, round one to you," she said and then she left but not without a glare at Chris and Leo who were nearest to her. After she was gone, the other demons followed her.

Once they were gone everyone went to make sure everyone else was okay. Lya went immediately to Chris who didn't look well but he was alive which was the good thing.

"Chris, hey, how are you doing?" she asked as he sighed.

"Well, I'm exhausted, how's that," he said and they both laughed.

"That's good, at least you can feel," she said. She then helped him up with the aid of Leo. With everyone no worse for wear, they were thus able to survey the damage. The Manor was practically in shambles but they knew that they had bigger fish to fry.

As some of the others including Paige helped clean up, Lya, Chris, Phoebe, Piper and Leo went upstairs to plan their next move. They were in the attic looking in the Book of Shadows trying to find the best location spell to find Desdemona. Everyone but Chris was looking because he was still recovering from his altercation with Desdemona. They were all concerned about him but he insisted that he was fine, he just needed some rest. As Piper, Leo and Phoebe went through the book, they pretended not to notice how much attention Chris and Lya were giving each other. Leo had talked to Piper and he convinced her to leave it be but she didn't promise anything. Later, they finally found just the right spell and Lya said that she could enhance it with her and Chris's combined abilities.

"Wait, are you sure Chris should be doing this so soon after . . ."Piper said but Chris interjected.

"Mom, I'm fine, I can do this and the sooner we can get these powers out of me the better," Chris said and he and her shared a look before she nodded.

"Okay," she said.

Back in the Underworld Desdemona was seething and she decided that she could take her anger out on the demons that were surrounding her. A few of them burst into flames by her sheer emotions and the others that were left standing were shaking in terror. She then began pacing angrily thinking of what she could do next.

"They did it, they shouldn't have been able to do it, but they did it, I'm going to kill them," she seethed angrily as she continued pacing. No one seemed to have a thing to say because they were too afraid to say anything. As Desdemona paced, a thought occurred to her all of sudden and she stopped in her tracks.

"I need to finish this fast, I'm gonna bring everything down on them and tear them apart one by one," she said aloud and the rest of the demons there knew what she truly meant. They were finally all going to be called to fight and a part of them would love the sort of destruction that would bring.

While the Charmed Ones and everyone were figuring things out, Chris tensed up. They all looked to him, concerned.

"What is it?" Lya asked.

"She's coming and she's not alone," he said and they all knew that all of this would be over, one way or another.

The Charmed Ones, Lya, two Elders including Sandra; and Chris knew they couldn't fight this battle in the Manor with the state it was in. So, they decided to bring the battle to the Underworld and to Desdemona. With her coming to them, they decided to head her off and go to her faster. They scryed for her and apparently, like Chris had said, she wasn't alone. It wasn't until they got there did they see how "not alone" she actually was. There were a few dozen demons all around and when they arrived and looked at them, they knew that this was going to be tough. Desdemona saw them arrive and smiled evilly.

"Welcome . . . to your end," she said, holding up her hands towards them, still smiling evilly.

"Says you," Chris replied and they both stared daggers at each other before all hell broke loose. Chris and Desdemona went at each other just as the good took on the bad. There were explosions and vanquishes all around as the bigger battle between Chris and Desdemona raged. They both threw everything that they had at one another and at times a rogue blast would take out their surroundings. Lya and Piper fought next to each other and Piper watched her use her remarkable skill, she was impressed. There may have been a lot of demons but many of them were taken care of. Desdemona saw this as well and decided that it was time to enact her ultimate power plan. She pushed herself free from Chris and took that time to gather her energy.

"Now is the time, give me your energy," she said and the remaining demons seemed to concentrate and then an aura emanated from them. It then got brighter and flew straight at Desdemona. Once entering her, her power skyrocketed. It was then that she seemed to gain the upper hand on Chris. However, Lya knew that Chris couldn't keep his defense up for long and so she decided to throw her hat into the ring. Piper too was going to help and so the three of them were able to stand against Desdemona. As they did, a voice seemed to come into Piper's head, Chris's voice, and she was a little shocked but she didn't let it stop her from fighting Desdemona.

Mom, I have an idea on defeating Desdemona and don't worry Lya is in on this too so here's the plan, I'm gonna need you two to act as distractions so that I can use her own power against her he said and Piper agreed. In her head, Chris's whole plan seemed to be put into her mind. She now fully understood what he wanted and she knew that Lya had gotten it too. After a few moments, they decided to enact it. Piper and Lya simultaneously hit Desdemona with their attacks. That managed to fling her backwards and all this gave Chris the time he needed to focus his own energy. As it was, Desdemona's own idea gave him his own. He didn't even have to ask, his family, friends and Elders gave him their strength. He could feel it and so could Desdemona. She got up as fast as she could and tried to stop it by sending an energy pulse his way. However, he was too far and so he was able to stop it. When the energy hit each other, they pushed towards one another. Everyone who was left had to stand back and shield themselves from the blasting energy. Both titans kept putting more and more energy into their adjoined blasts. Some stray blasts would take out a few of the surroundings but they still kept at it.

"You can't beat me Chris, I'm more powerful than you," Desdemona yelled over ruckus. She then pushed harder and for a moment, Chris seemed to buckle. Desdemona thought that she finally had him but as things were; Chris wasn't as down and out as Desdemona was let to believe. He took one last burst of energy and put all of his force behind him.

"Don't ever think power is everything, you'll never know where true power comes from," he said and that was all he said because right then all his energy came to a head. The blast on his side increased and as much as Desdemona tried to stop it, she couldn't. Chris's blast overpowered hers and she was engulfed in screams of agony. When the blast dissipated, all became calm once again. When the other demons saw Desdemona gone and Chris standing there, they knew they had to flee and so they did. When they were all gone, Chris believed that now was the time to nearly collapse. As he did, the energy that was in him, since it was no longer needed, left him in waves. Everyone else were forced to stand back as the power left him but when it was gone, they could finally go to him. As it was, Lya was the first to reach him and everyone else watched as she slowly knelt in front of him. He was taking deep breaths to compose himself as she lifted his chin up to face her. When their eyes met they held that gaze for a long moment before they slowly put their foreheads together in a loving manner. Piper and the others just let them have their moment before Piper cleared her throat and they both got up and looked to her.

"We should go," Piper said and the two nodded.

The Elders left after everything was over due to the fact there was nothing left to do. Piper did manage to thank them and that was all she was willing to do and they accepted it. When they got home, Piper and the others wanted to spend more time with Chris but Lya said that they had to go.

"Why do you have to go so soon?" Leo asked.

"You know why, if I stay it could have ramifications that even I can't see and I would never want to do that to you," Chris explained and they understood. Since they knew he had to go, Leo went over to him and gave him a big hug which he reciprocated. Piper came next and then Phoebe and Paige. When their goodbyes were done, they all stood back as Lya and Chris gathered together off to the side.

"Take care of our boy and . . . thank you, for everything," Piper said looking to Lya who just nodded towards them.

"Goodbye," Chris said and right then they both wind whirled out. Once they were gone, the Halliwells stood there for only a moment before they disbanded. In the end, Piper and Leo stood lone and Piper turned to her husband.

"Do you really think he's going to be okay?" she asked him.

"I do, besides you saw those two together, I think they're going to be just fine," he said and then gave his wife a sly smile to which she saw. When she did, she sighed annoyingly.

"Oh jeez," she said as she got his true meaning and then got up, "I'm going to pick up the kids." She then walked away leaving Leo by himself, smiling and knowing that what he had just told his wife was the truth and in time, everything would be alright.


End file.
